Israeli forces killed 15 people in south Lebanon yesterday as a deadline for their withdrawal passed and thousands of people tried to return to their homes in defiance of Israeli military orders, Lebanese authorities said.
US President Donald Trump floated a plan to “just clean out” Gaza, and said he wants Egypt and Jordan to take Palestinians from the territory, as a fragile truce between Israel and Hamas aimed at permanently ending the war entered its second week yesterday.
Palestinian militants and Israel carried out a hostage-prisoner swap yesterday under a Gaza ceasefire deal, but a last-minute dispute blocked the expected return of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to devastated northern Gaza.
The Israel-Hamas war has put back development in Gaza by 60 years and mobilising the tens of billions of dollars needed for reconstruction will be an uphill task, the United Nations said.
Israeli operations in the West Bank have killed at least 12 Palestinians since Tuesday and could threaten the newly agreed ceasefire in Gaza, United Nations Human Rights office spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan said yesterday.
A Palestinian official said hundreds of residents of the occupied West Bank’s Jenin refugee camp were leaving their homes yesterday, days into a large-scale Israeli raid in the area.
Guns may have fallen silent in Gaza, but for Mahmoud Abu Dalfa, the agony is not over. He is desperately searching for the bodies of his wife and five children trapped under the rubble of his house since the early months of the war.
A Palestinian official reported shooting and explosions in the flashpoint West Bank town of Jenin yesterday as Israeli forces pressed on with a raid that the military described as a “counterterrorism” operation.
Israeli strikes yesterday killed at least 48 people in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian health authorities said, as clashes took place in central and southern areas of the enclave ahead of the planned start of a polio vaccination campaign.
Palestinians displaced by fighting in the Gaza Strip crowded onto the seashore as Israeli forces continued to battle Hamas fighters in central and southern areas, with health officials reporting at least 22 people killed in strikes yesterday.
Israel issued new evacuation orders for Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip early yesterday, forcing more families to flee, saying forces intended to act against Hamas and others operating in the area.
Negotiators geared up for a crucial weekend of Gaza ceasefire talks yesterday, as Hamas said it was sending delegates to Cairo but would not participate in the discussions, and fighting raged in the Palestinian territory.
Iran’s new government will seek to “manage tensions” with its arch-enemy the United States to help reduce pressure and neutralise crippling sanctions, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said.
The United Arab Emirates has accepted the credentials of an ambassador from Afghanistan’s Taliban government, officials said, becoming just the second country after China to do so.
Lebanon’s health ministry said yesterday Israeli strikes killed seven people including a child in different parts of the south, with Hezbollah saying three of its fighters were among the dead.
The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and accompanying destroyers have arrived in the Middle East, the US military said Wednesday, after the country's defense secretary ordered the strike group to accelerate its speed
A bus carrying Pakistani pilgrims overturned in central Iran, killing 28 passengers and injuring another 23 people, state media reported yesterday.
Top US diplomat Antony Blinken headed home yesterday after failing to secure a Gaza ceasefire, warning both Israel and Hamas his plan may be the last chance to avert a broader war.
